Way back this time…
1976, and a winter deployment to Northern Japan…
I think I’d made E-6 a couple of months earlier. And was still trying to figure out the airplane, as I’d gone from a P-3B squadron to a P-3C squadron without benefit of going back through the RAG… Fun times…
Back in the day, you put pins on your hat for every country visited on a deployment.
The wings on the back were traded with a Taiwanese radar operator during a stopover down that way…
Hard to believe that was 37 years ago… I ran into one of my old pilots up here earlier this year, and we remembered each other! 🙂
Three memories that stick out from that deployment are the amount of snow, Belenko’s desertion with his Mig-25 and the day we had to do TWO medivacs down to Yokota in a blinding snowstorm. That was a LONG day…
Yeah,1976!!
I was stationed in Iwakuni at the time with VMA 223, but on a 5 month long deployment to Cubi Pt.
It was a great time to be a 19 year old dumbass from Coon Rapids,Mn.
AND,I’m going back for 2 weeks next month for a visit.
It’s good to be me.
And I don’t say that very often.
Hymie
I’m kind of a jerk to tell you,but
1976 was 39 years ago.
Trust me,I know.
Hymie
I was just about to tell him the same thing. I’m going to be 37 this year, and I was born in 1978
I was stationed in Iwakuni in 1976 with the VMA223 Bulldogs,but spent 5 months deployed to Cubi Pt.
It was a lot of fun for a 19 year old boob from Coon Rapids,MN.
I’m going back to Olongapo next month for a visit.
It’s good to be me.
And I don’t say that very often.
Oh yeah, I downed a lotta donuts and java at the VP-50 gedunk in Misawa that year.
Hymie
Pop was an E-5 or so in ’76. He and Mom were at Hurlburt Field with the 20th SOS.
I didn’t think that they had E-6’s back then. I thought that they were called sailing masters or carpenter’s mate?…. ;^)
Did a deployment to Exercise Yama Sakura back in… ’96? It was in Sapporo that year, and after the exercise we got to check out the preparations for the Snow and Ice festival.
Mostly what I remember was how frigging cold it was, and how expensive everything was. Being an MI Geek, I was going to buy a JSDF “1st EW Company” ball cap, but it was not in my budget.
That and the fact that if you looked real hard, you could still see faded “USASA FS Chitose” stenciled on walls.
I hear you, NFO. I was a brand-new E-5 on Adak back then, watching the P3Cs take off & land from my office window in the admin building. And yes, it starts to feel like a LONG time ago.
Geez…I was working at Fermilab then.
Loooong time ago!
I read Belenko’s book “MiG Pilot” when I was working for Hughes in 1982….also a looong time ago!
I was stationed at the 156th Maint. Co. (Small Arms Repair Shop) in Zirndorf, (W) Germany when Belenko landed in Japan.
Here is an interview with him from 1996—
http://www.fullcontext.info/people/belenko.htm
Hey Old NFO;
Stuff like that is cool…it reminds you where you have been…you do know “we are G.I. We souvenir everything long time”. I was looking at some of my Berlin wall stuff and other stuff and to me it seemed to be a few weeks ago…but it has been 26 years ago…..And my son cues in the “Didn’t you ride with the 7th cavalry with Major Benteen?”….kids….
I didn’t “do” souvenirs but still have my uniform brass, dog tags, and unit tabs.
I kept my squadron patch and my NCO stripes, Maybe a nat def ribbon.
And memories. Lotsa memories.
All- thanks for the comments and the ‘reminders’
Posted from my iPhone.
Thank-you for sharing the memories.
Thank-you for your service Hand Salute
I don’t recognize the 1st class rating on the first cap. I know it has something to do with aviation ASW stuff, but not sure which one. I’m an old surface ASW swabby, ya know. Didn’t follow you airdales much.
I have a old Kaohsiung made hat that says, 04667EAO4Z000. Filled that out on the 1348’s many times.
Rick- Thank you!
CP- AW (Anti-Submarine Warfare Operator) 7821/7851 NEC.
Jon- 🙂 Good one!